Techniques to communicate information using ofdma tone allocation schemes in frequency bands

ABSTRACT

Various embodiments are generally directed to an apparatus, method and other techniques to determine a bandwidth in a frequency band to communicate information to stations, determine an Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) tone allocation scheme based on the bandwidth, the OFDMA tone allocation scheme to include one or more resource units each comprising a plurality of tones and each having a fixed location in the bandwidth, and communicate information to the stations based on the OFDMA tone allocation scheme.

CROSS REFERENCE OF RELATED APPLICATION

This application, claims the benefit of and priority to, previouslyfiled Provisional U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 62/109,464 entitled“High-Efficiency (HE) Wi-Fi Station and Method for OFDMA Tone PlanningThat Uniformly Supports 256QAM Rate 5/6” filed on Jan. 29, 2015, thesubject matter of which is hereby incorporated by reference in itsentirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments pertain to wireless networks. Embodiments described hereingenerally relate techniques to communicate using an OrthogonalFrequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) tone allocation scheme infrequency bands.

BACKGROUND

Wireless communications has been evolving toward ever increasing datarates, e.g., from IEEE 802.11a/g to IEEE 802.11n to IEEE 802.11ac. Inhigh-density deployment situations, overall system efficiency may becomemore important than higher data rates. For example, in high-densityhotspot and cellular offloading scenarios, many devices competing forthe wireless medium may have low to moderate data rate requirements withrespect to the very high data rates of IEEE 802.11ac. A recently-formedstudy group for Wi-Fi evolution referred to as the IEEE 802.11 HighEfficiency WLAN (HEW) study group (SG) (i.e., IEEE 802.11ax) isaddressing these high-density deployment scenarios.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an example embodiment of a computing system.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example embodiment of an OFDMA tone allocationscheme.

FIG. 3A illustrates an example embodiment of a second OFDMA toneallocation scheme.

FIG. 3B illustrates an example embodiment of a third OFDMA toneallocation scheme.

FIG. 4A illustrates an example embodiment of a fourth OFDMA toneallocation scheme.

FIG. 4B illustrates an example embodiment of a fifth AFDMA toneallocation scheme.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example embodiment of a logic flow diagram.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example embodiment of a computing device.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example embodiment of a computing architecture.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various embodiments are generally directed to techniques for operationin accordance with one or more specification, standards or variantssuitable for wireless communications. For example, various embodimentsmay be directed to one or more systems operating in or around the 2.4GHz and 5 GHz frequency bands in accordance any one the of followingIEEE 802.11 standards, such as IEEE 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n,802.11ac, 802.11ax and other derivatives of these standards. Forexample, some embodiments may be directed one or more systems or devicesoperating according to Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers(IEEE) Standard 802.11ac-2013, Amendment 4: Enhancements for Very HighThroughput for Operation in Bands below 6 GHz, published December 2013,or according to any predecessors, revisions, or variants thereof, suchas 802.11ax also known as high efficiency WLAN (HEW) promulgated by theHigh Efficiency WLAN Study Group (HEW SG). These IEEE 802.11 standards,including IEEE 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n, 802.11ac, and802.11ax may be collectively referred to as the “IEEE 802.11 standards.”

The following disclosure discusses OFDMA tone allocation schemes formulti-user operation in IEEE 802.11ax (High Efficiency WLAN or HEW). Thewaveform operates with a 4× longer symbol duration than existing 802.11OFDM waveforms (VHT, HT or non-HT) as defined in the existing 802.11specification. Further, embodiments provide a flexible tone resourceunit allocation method that is simple for implementation, testing,scheduling and sub-band feedback. The proposed OFDMA tone allocationshave fixed locations, while supporting pilot tones with variablelocations. In addition, the proposed allocation sizes provide asignificant advantage over predecessor schemes by supporting a 256-QAMmodulation coding scheme (MCS), coding rate 5/6, with BCC encoding onall OFDMA allocation sizes.

In embodiments, stations (e.g., master stations and wireless stations)may be configured to communicate using one or more of the allocationsizes disclosed herein for 256-QAM, coding rate 5/6, with BCC encoding.The embodiments disclosed herein provide details on the number ofsubcarriers or tones assigned in various possible resource blocks thatare arrived at after considering a number of trade-offs includingfrequency efficiency, reuse of existing 802.11 Wi-Fi architecturalbuilding blocks, ease of implementation and coexistence with legacydevices, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in thisrespect.

The 802.11ax task group has been started to evolve Wi-Fi from the802.11ac/ah proposed standards. This task group considers, as one of thetarget use cases, high density deployment scenarios such as largeenterprises, residential buildings and hotspots for which OFDMA is apromising technology. However, embodiments described herein are notlimited to these usage scenarios may be implemented any othercontemplated scenario.

The embodiments disclosed herein provide detailed design, i.e., variousOFDMA allocation sizes for the 256-point, 512-point and 1024-point FastFourier Transforms (FFTs) in 802.11ax 20 MHz, 40 MHz and 80 MHzbandwidths of operation, respectively. They may be used with a 4× symbolduration of 802.11n/ac, to target both outdoor and indoor environments.In outdoor environments, 4× longer symbol duration enables the use of amore efficient Cyclic Prefix (CP) to overcome the longer delay spread,and in indoor environment, it allows a more relaxed requirement forclock timing accuracy.

Some of the embodiments disclosed herein may use multiple of powers oftwo of 26-tone, and 242-tone allocations, in addition to a 108-toneallocation. These embodiments may allow more guard tones and nulls atdirect conversion (DC) for 80 MHz operation vs. 20 and 40 MHz operationto further ease implementation in the 5 GHz band, while providingconsistent structure for the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands. Some of theembodiments disclosed herein may minimize the number of configurationsand OFDMA modes. This may be done by designing allocations with fixedlocations.

Some of the embodiments disclosed herein provide 20 MHz, 40 MHz and 80MHz waveform designs for use in 20 MHz, 40 MHZ and 80 MHz BSSs. Theproposed waveform is easily scaled for use in a BSS with 160 MHz witheither contiguous or non-contiguous allocations. The proposed design hascharacteristics, such as efficient support of 256-QAM, coding rate 5/6,with BCC encoding and use of existing interleaver architecture,consistent tone use for 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequency bands, consistenttone use for 20 MHz and 40 MHz and easy feedback and consistent with 80MHz bandwidth. Other characteristics of embodiments may include simpleimplementation, testing, scheduling and sub-band feedback, limitednumber of modes, resource unit allocations have fixed locations and onlyin some instances only one 26-tone resource unit straddles DC tones.

Reference is now made to the drawings, wherein like reference numeralsare used to refer to like elements throughout. In the followingdescription, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details areset forth in order to provide a thorough understanding thereof. It maybe evident, however, that the embodiments can be practiced without thesespecific details. In other instances, structures and devices are shownin block diagram form in order to facilitate a description thereof. Theintention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternativesconsistent with the claimed subject matter.

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of one embodiment of a communicationssystem 100. In various embodiments, the communications system 100 mayinclude multiple stations or devices. A station generally may includeany physical or logical entity for communicating information in thecommunications system 100 and may be implemented as hardware, software,or any combination thereof, as desired for a given set of designparameters and performance constraints. Although FIG. 1 may show alimited number of stations by way of example, it can be appreciated thatmore or less stations may be employed for a given implementation.

In various embodiments, the communications system 100 may include, orform part of a wired communications system, a wireless communicationssystem, or a combination of both. For example, the communications system100 may include one or more stations arranged to communicate informationover one or more types of wired communication links. Examples of a wiredcommunication link, may include, without limitation, a wire, cable, bus,printed circuit board (PCB), Ethernet connection, peer-to-peer (PTP)connection, backplane, switch fabric, semiconductor material,twisted-pair wire, co-axial cable, fiber optic connection, and so forth.The communications system 100 also may include one or more stationsarranged to communicate information over one or more types of wirelesscommunication links. Examples of a wireless communication link mayinclude, without limitation, a radio channel, infrared channel,radio-frequency (RF) channel, Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) channel, aportion of the RF spectrum, and/or one or more licensed or license-freefrequency bands. The communications system 100 may communicateinformation in accordance with one or more standards as promulgated by astandards organization, such as the IEEE 802.11 standards previouslydiscussed.

The communications system 100 may communicate, manage, or processinformation in accordance with one or more protocols. A protocol mayinclude a set of predefined rules or instructions for managingcommunication among stations. In various embodiments, for example, thecommunications system 100 may employ one or more protocols such as abeam forming protocol, medium access control (MAC) protocol, PhysicalLayer Convergence Protocol (PLCP), Simple Network Management Protocol(SNMP), Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) protocol, Frame Relay protocol,Systems Network Architecture (SNA) protocol, Transport Control Protocol(TCP), Internet Protocol (IP), TCP/IP, X.25, Hypertext Transfer Protocol(HTTP), User Datagram Protocol (UDP), a contention-based period (CBP)protocol, a distributed contention-based period (CBP) protocol and soforth. The embodiments are not limited in this context.

As shown in FIG. 1, the communications system 100 may include a network102 and a plurality of wireless stations 104-n, where n may representany positive integer value. In various embodiments, the wirelessstations 104-n may be implemented as various types of wireless devices.Examples of wireless devices may include, without limitation, asubscriber station, a base station, a wireless access point (AP), awireless client device, a wireless station (STA), a laptop computer,ultra-laptop computer, portable computer, personal computer (PC),notebook PC, handheld computer, personal digital assistant (PDA),cellular telephone, combination cellular telephone/PDA, smartphone,pager, messaging device, media player, media server, digital musicplayer, set-top box (STB), appliance, workstation, user terminal, mobileunit, consumer electronics, television, digital television,high-definition television, television receiver, high-definitiontelevision receiver, and so forth. In the illustrated embodiment shownin FIG. 1, the wireless stations 104-n may include a PC 104-1, a digitalTV 104-2, a media source 104-3 (e.g., a CD, DVD, media file server,etc.), a handheld device 104-4, and a laptop or notebook 104-5. Theseare merely a few examples, and the embodiments are not limited in thiscontext.

In some embodiments, the wireless stations 104-n may include one morewireless interfaces and/or components for wireless communication such asone or more transmitters, receivers, transceivers, chipsets, amplifiers,filters, control logic, network interface cards (NICs), antennas,antenna arrays, modules and so forth. Examples of an antenna mayinclude, without limitation, an internal antenna, an omni-directionalantenna, a monopole antenna, a dipole antenna, an end fed antenna, acircularly polarized antenna, a micro-strip antenna, a diversityantenna, a dual antenna, an antenna array, and so forth.

In some embodiments, the wireless network 102 may be a High Efficiency(HE) Wi-Fi (HEW) network. The wireless network 102 may include a masterstation 110, and the wireless stations 104-n may be HEW stations. Insome embodiments, the wireless network 102 may support communication bylegacy stations (not shown). The master station 110 may be arranged tocommunicate with the HEW stations 104 and the legacy stations inaccordance with one or more of the IEEE 802.11 standards.

In accordance with some embodiments, an access point may operate as themaster station 110 and may be arranged to contend for a wireless medium(e.g., during a contention period) to receive exclusive control of themedium for a HEW control period, e.g., a transmission opportunity(TXOP). The master station 110 may, for example, transmit a master-syncor control transmission at the beginning of the HEW control period toindicate, among other things, which wireless stations 104 are scheduledfor communication during the HEW control period. During the HEW controlperiod, the scheduled wireless stations 104 may communicate with themaster station 110 in accordance with a non-contention based multipleaccess technique. This is unlike conventional Wi-Fi communications inwhich devices communicate in accordance with a contention-basedcommunication technique, rather than a non-contention based multipleaccess technique. During the HEW control period, the master station 110may communicate with wireless stations 104 using one or more HEW frames.During the HEW control period, legacy stations may refrain fromcommunicating. In some embodiments, the master-sync transmission may bereferred to as a control and schedule transmission.

In some embodiments, the master station 110, the one or more stations104, and the wireless network 102 may support and use one or moremodulation schemes to communicate information between the stations. Forexample, embodiments may include stations communicating using theOrthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) digital modulationscheme and/or the multi-user version orthogonal frequency-divisionmultiple access (OFDMA). Multiple access may be achieved by assigningsubsets of subcarriers or tones to individual users or stations to allowfor simultaneous transmissions between stations. To incorporate OFDMAinto WLAN capable stations, various parameters and designs may be madeto the physical layer (PHY) and embodiments may include using one ormore OFDMA tone allocation schemes to assign a subset of tones tostations in bandwidths in a frequency band. In addition, the OFDMA toneallocation schemes may take into account a number of trade-offs, such asfrequency efficiency, reuse of existing 802.11 Wi-Fi architecturaldesigns, ease of implementation, and coexistence with legacycommunication methods.

In some embodiments, one or more of the master station 110 and thewireless stations 104-n may include memory having instructions that maybe processed by logic, circuitry, and/or a processor component todetermine a bandwidth in a frequency band to communicate information toone or more other stations. The frequency band may be the 2.4 GHz or 5GHz frequency and the bandwidth may be based on a number of stationswanting to communicate at a same or similar time period. In someembodiments, the bandwidth may be 20 megahertz (MHz), 40 MHz, or 80 MHzcontiguous bandwidths or an 80+80 MHz (160) MHz non-contiguousbandwidth. In some embodiments, a 320 MHz channel width may be used. Insome embodiments, subchannel bandwidths less than 20 MHz may also beused. In these embodiments, each channel or subchannel of an HEWcommunication may be configured for transmitting a number of spatialstreams.

In some embodiments, one or more of the master station 110 and thewireless stations 104 may also include memory having instructions thatmay be processed by logic, circuitry, and/or a processor component todetermine an OFDMA tone allocation scheme based on a determinedbandwidth. The OFDMA tone allocation scheme may include one or more toneresource unit allocations that include resource units. Each of theresource units of a tone resource unit allocation may be assigned to auser and may include a plurality of tones. Further, each of the resourceunits may have an OFDMA tone allocation size which may be a multiplepowers of two for a 26-tone resource unit, and a 242-tone resource unit.In other words, a resource unit may have a 26-tone size, a 52-tone size,a 242-tone size, or a 2×242 (484)-tone size. In some embodiments, theOFDMA tone allocation size for a resource unit may be a 108-tone size ora 996-tone size. The OFDMA tone allocation size may allow for operationsusing 256-point, 512-point, and 1024-point FFTs in the 20 MHz, 40 MHz,and 80 MHz, respectively. Further, these FFTs may be used with a symbolduration that is 4 times (4×) longer than a typical symbol duration usedin 802.11ac, for example. This longer symbol duration may allow for amore efficient cyclic prefix (CP) to overcome a longer delay spread andallow for a more relaxed clock timing accuracy.

In some embodiments, an OFDMA tone allocation scheme may define a numberof resource units having tones where each of the resource units may havea fixed location within the bandwidth of a frequency range. Further,embodiments may include an OFDMA tone allocation scheme that supports anumber of guard, null, and pilot tones, where the pilot tones have avariable location in the bandwidth. An OFDMA tone allocation schemediscussed herein may allow for more guard tones and nulls around directconversion (DC) tones for 80 MHz operation versus 20 MHz operation and40 MHz operation.

In some embodiments, the OFDMA tone allocation schemes may supportcommunicating information between stations having a number ofcharacteristics. For example, the OFDMA tone allocation schemesdiscussed herein may support communicating information in accordancewith a modulation and coding scheme, such as BPSK, QPSK, 16-QAM, 64-QAM,and 256-QAM. Further, the OFDMA tone allocation schemes discussed hereinmay support a forward error correction (FEC) coding rate, such as a 1/2coding rate, a 2/3 coding rate, a 3/4 coding rate, and a 5/6 codingrate. In some embodiments, the OFDMA tone allocation schemes discussedherein may support binary convolutional coding (BCC). For example,embodiments may include features to support an OFDMA tone allocationscheme for 20 MHz bandwidth that is capable of communicating informationusing a 256-QAM modulation scheme, a 5/6 coding rate, and BCC encoding,which is not supported in IEEE 802.11ac, for example. Variousembodiments are not limited in this manner. These and other details willbecome more apparent in the following description.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example embodiment of an OFDMA tone allocationscheme 200 which may be used in communicating information betweenstations, such as master station 110 and wireless stations 104. In theillustrated embodiment, the OFDMA tone allocation scheme 200 has abandwidth of 20 MHz which may be in the 2.4 GHz or the 5 GHz frequencyband. In embodiments, the OFDMA tone allocation scheme 200 mayillustrate 256 tones from −128 on the left side of the DC tones 214 to128 on the right side of DC. In other words, the FFT size for a 20 MHzbandwidth OFDMA tone allocation scheme may be 256, which may include 3DC tones 214, 11 edge or guard tones 316, and 242 usable tones whichincludes a number of pilot tones. The OFDMA tone allocation scheme for a20 MHz bandwidth may also include a number of null tones 216, such aseight null tones in the 26-tone resource unit allocation 202 and fournull tones in the 52-tone resource unit allocation 204. Embodiments arenot limited in this manner.

The OFDMA tone allocation scheme 200 may divide the 20 MHz bandwidthinto a number of resource units each having a plurality of tones. Thenumber of resource units and the OFDMA tone allocation size may be basedon a number of stations to communicate in the network. Morespecifically, the OFDMA tone allocation scheme 200 in the 20 MHzfrequency range may allocate tones in a 26-tone resource unit allocation202, a 52-tone resource unit allocation 204, a 108-tone resource unitallocation 206, and a 242-tone resource unit allocation 208. Further,the OFDMA tone allocation scheme 200 includes a single 26-tone resourceunit 212 that may straddle the DC tones 214 and may be within the26-tone resource unit allocation 202, the 52-tone resource untilallocation 204, and the 108-tone resource unit allocation 206. Each ofthe resource units in FIG. 2 is illustrated by a different “hatching”pattern and be assigned to particular user or station.

As the size of the resource unit allocations increase, e.g. the numberof tones in a resource unit increases, the less resource units areavailable to assign to stations. Thus, as illustrated in the FIG. 2, theOFDMA tone allocation scheme 200 can include eight 26-tone resourceunits and one 26-tone resource unit at the DC tones 214 in the 26-toneresource unit allocation 202 illustrated by eight different blocks andone block straddling DC. The OFDMA tone allocation scheme 200 may alsoinclude four 52-tone resource units and one 26-tone resource unit at theDC tones 214 in the 52-tone resource unit allocation 204 illustrated byfour different blocks and one block straddling DC. The OFDMA toneallocation scheme 200 may also include two 108-tone resource units andone 26-tone resource unit at the DC tones 214 in the 108-tone resourceunit allocation 206 illustrated by two different blocks and one blockstraddling DC. Further, the OFDMA tone allocation scheme 200 may includea single non-OFDMA (single user or multi-user MIMO) 242-tone resourceunit.

As mentioned, each of the tone resource unit allocations may include anumber of guard or edge tones 218, null tones 216, and pilot tones (notshown). In embodiments, a number of guard or edge tones 218 may beallocated on ends of the bandwidth to prevent interference. In oneexample, one side of the bandwidth may be allocated five edge tones 218and the other side may be allocated six edge tones 218, or vice versa.FIG. 2 illustrates the OFDMA tone allocation scheme 200 having nulltones 216 between resource units in the 26-tone resource unit allocation202 and the 52-tone resource unit allocation 204 in FIG. 2. The pilottones may have variable locations and are part of the usable resourceallocated tones. Further, the number of leftover tones may also bevariable and based on various characteristics.

The tone resource unit allocations are defined such that they support256-QAM modulation and coding, a 5/6 coding rate, and use BCC encoding.In one example configuration, the 108-tone resource unit allocation 208may include two 108-tone resource units and a 26-tone resource unit thatstraddles the DC tones 214. Each of the 108-tone resource units mayinclude 102 data tones and six pilot tones to allow for 256-QAMmodulation and coding, a 5/6 coding rate, and use BCC encoding. Furtherthis example configuration allows for reuse of existing legacy blockinterleaver architectures. Various embodiments are not limited in thismanner.

FIG. 3A illustrates an example embodiment of an OFDMA tone allocationscheme 300 which may be used in communicating information betweenstations. In the illustrated embodiment, the OFDMA tone allocationscheme 300 has a bandwidth of 40 MHz which may be in the 2.4 GHz or the5 GHz frequency band. In embodiments, the OFDMA tone allocation scheme300 illustrates 512 tones from −256 on the left side of DC tones 314 to256 on the right side of DC tones 314. In other words, the FFT size fora 40 MHz bandwidth OFDMA tone allocation scheme may be 512, which mayinclude 5 DC tones 314, 23 edge or guard tones 318, and 484 usable toneswhich may include pilot tones. The OFDMA tone allocation scheme for a 40MHz bandwidth may also include a number of null tones 316, such as 16null tones in the 26-tone resource unit allocation 302 and 8 null tonesin the 52-tone resource unit allocation 304. Embodiments are not limitedin this manner.

The OFDMA tone allocation scheme 300 may divide the 40 MHz bandwidthinto a number of resource units each having a plurality of tones. Thenumber of resource units and the OFDMA tone allocation size may be basedon a number of stations to communicate in the network. Morespecifically, the OFDMA tone allocations scheme 300 in the 40 MHzfrequency range may include a 26-tone resource unit allocation 302, a52-tone resource unit allocation 304, a 108-tone resource unitallocation 306, a 242-tone resource unit allocation 308, and a2×242-tone resource unit allocation 310. Further, the OFDMA toneallocation scheme 300 includes two 26-tone resource units 312 that maystraddle the DC tones 314 and may be within the 26-tone resource unitallocation 302, the 52-tone resource until allocation 304, and the108-tone resource unit allocation 306. Each of the resource units inFIG. 3A is illustrated by a different “hatching” pattern and may beassigned to a user or station.

As the size of the resource unit allocations increase, e.g. the numberof tones in a resource unit increases, the fewer number resource unitsare available to assign to stations. Thus, as illustrated in the FIG.3A, the OFDMA tone allocation scheme 300 can include 18 26-tone resourceunits in the 26-tone resource unit allocation 302. The OFDMA toneallocation scheme 300 may also include eight 52-tone resource units andtwo 26-tone resource unit at the DC tones 314 in the 52-tone resourceunit allocation 304. The OFDMA tone allocation scheme 300 may alsoinclude four 108-tone resource units and two 26-tone resource unit atthe DC tones 314 in the 108-tone resource unit allocation 306. Further,the OFDMA tone allocation scheme 300 may include two 242-tone resourceunits in the 242-tone resource allocation 308. In some embodiments, theOFDMA tone allocations scheme 300 may include a single non-OFDMA (singleuser or multi-user 2×242 (484)-tone resource unit in the 2×242-toneresource allocation 310.

As mentioned, each of the tone resource unit allocations may include anumber of guard or edge tones 318, null tones 316, and pilot tones (notshown). In embodiments, a number of guard or edge tones 318 may beallocated on ends of the bandwidth to prevent interference. In oneexample, one side of the bandwidth may be allocated 11 edge tones 318and the other side may be allocated 12 edge tones 318, or vice versa.FIG. 3A illustrates the OFDMA tone allocation scheme 300 illustratesnull tones 316 between resource units in the 26-tone resource unitallocation 302 and the 52-tone resource unit allocation 304. The pilottones may have variable locations and are part of the usable resourceallocated tones. Further, the number of leftover tones may also bevariable and based on various characteristics.

FIG. 3B illustrates an example embodiment of an OFDMA tone allocationscheme 350 which may be used in communicating information betweenstations. In the illustrated embodiment, the OFDMA tone allocationscheme 350 has a bandwidth of 40 MHz which may be in the 2.4 GHz or the5 GHz frequency band and may be similar to the OFDMA tone allocationscheme 300 illustrated in FIG. 3A. For example, in embodiments, theOFDMA tone allocation scheme 350 illustrates 512 tones from −256 on theleft side of DC to 256 on the right side of DC. However, the OFDMA toneallocation 350 may have 26-tone resource units 352 in a middle portionof the resource units below and above the DC tones 314. The 26-toneresource units 352 may be located in the 26-tone resource unitallocation 302, the 52-tone resource unit allocation, and the 108-toneresource unit allocation.

FIG. 4A illustrates an example embodiment of an OFDMA tone allocationscheme 400 which may be used in communicating information betweenstations. In the illustrated embodiment, the OFDMA tone allocationscheme 400 has a bandwidth of 80 MHz which may be in the 2.4 GHz or the5 GHz frequency band. In embodiments, the OFDMA tone allocation scheme400 illustrates 1024 tones from −512 on the left side of DC tones 418 to512 on the right side of DC tones 418. In other words, the FFT size foran 80 MHz bandwidth OFDMA tone allocation scheme may be 1024, which mayinclude 7 DC tones 418, 23 edge or guard tones 422, and 994 usable toneswhich may include a number of pilot tones. The OFDMA tone allocationscheme for an 80 MHz bandwidth may also include a number of null tones420, such as 32 null tones in the 26-tone resource unit allocation 402and 16 null tones in the 52-tone resource unit allocation 404.Embodiments are not limited in this manner.

The OFDMA tone allocation scheme 400 may divide the 80 MHz bandwidthinto a number of resource units each having a plurality of tones. Thenumber of resource units and the OFDMA tone allocation size may be basedon a number of stations to communicate in the network. Morespecifically, the OFDMA tone allocations scheme 400 in the 80 MHzfrequency range may include a 26-tone resource unit allocation 402, a52-tone resource unit allocation 404, a 108-tone resource unitallocation 406, a 242-tone resource unit allocation 408, a 2×242-toneresource unit allocation 410, and a 996-tone resource unit allocation412. Further, the OFDMA tone allocation scheme 400 includes a single26-tone resource unit 416 that may straddle the DC tones 418 and may bewithin the 26-tone resource unit allocation 402, the 52-tone resourceunit allocation 404, the 108-tone resource unit allocation 406, the242-tone resource unit allocation 408, and the 2×242-tone resource unitallocation 410. Each of the resource units in FIG. 4A is illustrated bya different “hatching” pattern and may be assigned to different users orstations.

As illustrated in the FIG. 4A, the OFDMA tone allocation scheme 400 caninclude 36 26-tone resource units and a single 26-tone resource unit 416straddling DC tones 418 in the 26-tone resource unit allocation 402. TheOFDMA tone allocation scheme 400 may also include 18 52-tone resourceunits, and a single 26-tone resource unit straddling DC tones 418 in the52-tone resource unit allocation 404. The OFDMA tone allocation scheme400 may also include eight 108-tone resource units, two 52-tone resourceunits, and a single 26-tone resource unit at the DC tones 418 in the108-tone resource unit allocation 406. Further, the OFDMA toneallocation scheme 400 may include four 242-tone resource units and asingle 26-tone resource unit in the 242-tone resource allocation 408. Insome embodiments, the OFDMA tone allocation scheme 400 may include two2×242-tone resource allocations and a single 26-resource unit allocationin the 2×242-tone resource unit allocation 410. In addition, the OFDMAtone allocation scheme 400 may include a single non-OFDMA (single useror multi-user MIMO) 996-tone resource unit in the 996-tone resource unitallocation 412.

As mentioned, each of the tone resource unit allocations may include anumber of guard or edge tones 422, null tones 420, and pilot tones (notshown). In embodiments, a number of guard or edge tones 422 may beallocated on ends of the bandwidth to prevent interference. In oneexample, one side of the bandwidth may be allocated 11 edge tones 422and the other side may be allocated 12 edge tones 422, or vice versa.FIG. 4A illustrates the OFDMA tone allocation scheme 400 illustratesnull tones 420 between resource units in the 26-tone resource unitallocation 402 and the 52-tone resource unit allocation 404. The pilottones may have variable locations and are part of the usable resourceallocated tones. Further, the number of leftover tones may also bevariable and based on various characteristics.

In the illustrated embodiment in FIG. 4A, the 52-tone resource unitallocation 404 and the 108-tone resource unit allocation 406 may includetwo 52-tone resource units, one on each side of the DC tones 418 and thesingle 26-tone resource unit 416. However, various embodiments are notlimited in this manner as explained below in FIG. 4B.

FIG. 4B illustrates an example embodiment of an OFDMA tone allocationscheme 450 which may be used in communicating information betweenstations. In the illustrated embodiment, the OFDMA tone allocationscheme 450 has a bandwidth of 80 MHz which may be in the 2.4 GHz or the5 GHz frequency band and may be similar to the OFDMA tone allocationscheme 400 illustrated in FIG. 4A. For example, in embodiments, theOFDMA tone allocation scheme 450 may illustrate 1024 tones from −512 onthe left side of DC to 512 on the right side of DC. However, the OFDMAtone allocation 450 may have a single 26-tone resource unit 416 thatstraddles the DC tones 418 and a 52-tone resource unit in a middleportion of the resource units below the DC tones 418 and a 52-toneresource unit a middle portion to the resource units above the DC tones418. The 52-tone resource units 454 may be within the 52-tone resourceunit allocation, and the 108-tone resource unit allocation.

With respect to the OFDMA tone allocation schemes illustrated in FIGS. 2through 4B and as previously discussed, each resource unit may beassigned to a user or a user's station by a master station. Thus, whendetermining which OFDMA tone allocation scheme to use the master stationmay need to determine a bandwidth available to communicate on in afrequency band. For example, a master station may determine availablebandwidth based on traffic that is being communicated in a frequencyband. The master channel may also determine how many stations desire tocommunicate during a same period of time, such as a HEW control periodto determine which tone resource unit allocation to use. The masterstation may then select an OFDMA tone allocation scheme based on thebandwidth and a tone resource unit allocation to use in bandwidth basedon the number of stations.

For example, 20 MHz of bandwidth may be available to communicate on forvarious stations. The master station may use the OFDMA tone allocationillustrated in FIG. 2 and select a tone resource unit allocation to usebased on the number of stations for communication in the time period.More specifically, if eight stations wish to communicate in the timeperiod, the 26-tone resource unit allocation 202 may be used to assignresource blocks to the stations. Various other examples may becontemplated based on available bandwidth and a number of stations tocommunicate in the time period.

FIG. 5 illustrates an embodiment of a first logic flow diagram 500. Thelogic flow 500 may be representative of some or all of the operationsexecuted by one or more embodiments described herein. For example, thelogic flow 500 may illustrate operations performed by one or moresystems, devices, stations, etc. in FIGS. 1, 6 and 7 which may utilizeone or more of the OFDMA tone allocation schemes disclosed in FIGS. 2through 4B. Various embodiments are not limited in this manner.

At block 505, the logic flow 500 may include determining a bandwidth ina frequency band to communicate information to stations. In someembodiments, the bandwidth may be 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, and 160(80+80) MHz and may be in the 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz frequency band. In someembodiments, the bandwidth used to communicate the information may bebased on a number of stations to communicate during a time period and/orthe available bandwidth in a frequency band. Other factors may also beused to determine the bandwidth to use for OFDMA communication.

In embodiments, the logic flow 500 may also include determining an OFDMAtone allocation scheme based on the bandwidth at block 510. For example,FIG. 2 illustrates an OFDMA tone allocation scheme for a 20 MHzbandwidth. Further, FIGS. 3A and 3B illustrate OFDMA tone allocationschemes for a 40 MHz bandwidth. Similarly, FIGS. 4A and 4B illustrateOFDMA tone allocation schemes for an 80 MHz bandwidth. Further, theOFDMA tone allocation scheme may include one or more resource units eachcomprising a plurality of tones and each resource unit having a fixedlocation in the bandwidth. Each of the resource units may be assigned toa user or a station for communicating information on by a masterstation, for example. Thus, a station may communicate on the assignedresource unit without concern of interfering with other stations alsocommunicating during a same time period.

At block 515, the logic flow may also include communicating informationto the stations based on the OFDMA tone allocation scheme. Morespecifically, information may be communicated to a particular station onthe tones of the resource unit assigned to the particular station. Forexample, an access point or master station may assign a 26-tone resourceunit to another station and then communicate information to the stationon the tones of the assigned 26-tone resource unit.

FIG. 6 illustrates an embodiment of a computing device 600. In variousembodiments, computing device 600 may be representative of a computingdevice or system for use with one or more embodiments described herein,such as those discussed in FIGS. 1-5. Further computing device 600 maybe a HEW compliant device that may be arranged to communicate with oneor more other HEW devices, such as wireless stations 104 and masterstation 110. Further, the computing device 600 may be capable tocommunicate with legacy devices. In embodiments, the computing device600 may be suitable for operating as master station or an HEW station.

In various embodiments, computing device 600 may be any type ofcomputing device including a computing device including a personalcomputer (PC), laptop computer, ultra-laptop computer, netbook computer,ultrabook computer, tablet, touch pad, portable computer, handheldcomputer, palmtop computer, personal digital assistant (PDA), cellulartelephone, combination cellular telephone/PDA, television, smart device(e.g., smart phone, smart tablet or smart television), mobile internetdevice (MID), messaging device, data communication device, and so forth.

As shown in FIG. 6, computing device 600 may include multiple elements.One or more elements may be implemented using one or more circuits,components, registers, processors, software subroutine modules, or anycombination thereof, as desired for a given set of design or performanceconstraints. Although FIG. 6 shows a limited number of elements in acertain topology by way of example, it can be appreciated that more orless elements in any suitable topology may be used in computing device600 as desired for a given implementation. The embodiments are notlimited in this context.

In various embodiments, computing device 600 may include one or moreprocessing component(s) 602. Processing component(s) 602 may be one ormore of any type of computational element, such as but not limited to, amicroprocessor, a processor, central processing unit, digital signalprocessing unit, dual core processor, mobile device processor, desktopprocessor, single core processor, a system-on-chip (SoC) device, complexinstruction set computing (CISC) microprocessor, a reduced instructionset (RISC) microprocessor, a very long instruction word (VLIW)microprocessor, or any other type of processor or processing circuit ona single chip or integrated circuit or processing circuitry. Theprocessing component(s) 602 may be connected to and communicate with theother elements and components of the computing system via aninterconnect 643, such as one or more buses, control lines, and datalines.

In one embodiment, computing device 600 may include memory 604 which maybe coupled with processing component(s) 602. In various embodiments, thememory 604 may store instructions, data and information for use by thecomputing device 600.

Memory 604 may be coupled to processing components(s) 602 viainterconnect 653, or by a dedicated communications bus betweenprocessing components(s) 602 and memory 604, as desired for a givenimplementation. Memory 604 may be implemented using any machine-readableor computer-readable media capable of storing data, including bothvolatile and non-volatile memory. In some embodiments, themachine-readable or computer-readable medium may include anon-transitory medium. The embodiments are not limited in this context.

The memory 604 can store instructions and data momentarily, temporarily,or permanently. The memory 604 may also store temporary variables orother intermediate information while the processing component(s) 602 isexecuting instructions. The memory 604 is not limited to storing theabove discussed data and may store any type of data.

The computing device 600 may include a transceiver 606 which includesone or more components and circuitry to transmit and receive informationusing radio-frequency signals. More specifically, the transceiver 606may include circuitry to produce radio-frequency mobile radio signalswhich are to be sent and for processing radio-frequency mobile radiosignals which have been received. To this end, the transceiver 606 maybe coupled to one or more antenna 620. The transmitted or receivedmobile radio signals are in one or more particular frequency ranges,which are typically prescribed by the mobile radio standard(s) supportedby the radio-frequency assemblies. For example, transceiver 606 mayinclude circuitry to process information according to one or more IEEEstandards, one or more peer-to-peer protocols, and so forth. Variousembodiments are not limited in this manner and transceiver 606 maytransmit or receive information via any standard in any frequency rangewith one more devices, as previously mentioned.

In various embodiments, the transceiver 606 may be used to communicatewith one or more other devices or stations via one or more antennas 620.The transceiver 606 may send and receive information from the stationsas one or more pockets, frames, and any other transmission structure inaccordance with one or more protocols.

In some embodiments, the transceiver 606 may include physical layer(PHY) circuitry and medium-access control layer circuitry (MAC). The PHYand MAC may be HEW compliant layers and may also be compliant with oneor more legacy IEEE 802.11 standards. PHY circuitry may be arranged totransmit HEW frames.

In accordance with some embodiments, the MAC circuitry may be arrangedto contend for a wireless medium during a contention period to receivecontrol of the medium for the HEW control period and configure an HEWframe. The PHY circuitry may be arranged to transmit the HEW frame asdiscussed above. The PHY circuitry may also be arranged to receive anHEW frame from HEW stations. MAC circuitry may also be arranged toperform transmitting and receiving operations through the PHY circuitry.The PHY circuitry may include circuitry for modulation/demodulation, upconversion and/or down conversion, filtering, amplification, etc.

The computing device 600 may include input/output adapter 608. Examplesof I/O adapter 608 may include Universal Serial Bus (USB)ports/adapters, IEEE 1394 Firewire ports/adapters, and so forth. Theembodiments are not limited in this context.

For example, an I/O adapter 608 may also include an input device orsensor, such as one or more buttons, a keyboard, a keypad, a touchscreendisplay, a touch sensitive device, a microphone, a biometric fingerprinter reader, biometric eye scanner or any other device used forinputting information into computing device 605. Moreover, the I/Oadapter 608 may be a sensor including any hardware or logic to detectone or more touches or inputs on or near a housing of the apparatus, adisplay of the apparatus including a touchscreen or touch sensitivedisplay.

In various embodiments, the I/O adapter 608 may include one or morecomponents to output information to a user. For example, the I/O adapter608 may include a speaker to output an audible noise or a hapticfeedback device to output a vibration. The I/O adapter 608 may belocated any within or on computing device 605, or may be separate andconnected to the computing device 600 via a wired or wirelessconnection.

The computing device 600 may also include a display 610. Display 610 mayconstitute any display device capable of displaying information receivedfrom processor units 602, such as liquid crystal display (LCD), cathoderay tube (CRT) display, a projector, and so forth. Various embodimentsare not limited in this manner.

The computing device 600 may also include storage 612. Storage 612 maybe implemented as a non-volatile storage device such as, but not limitedto, a magnetic disk drive, optical disk drive, tape drive, an internalstorage device, an attached storage device, flash memory, batterybacked-up SDRAM (synchronous DRAM), and/or a network accessible storagedevice. In embodiments, storage 612 may include technology to increasethe storage performance enhanced protection for valuable digital mediawhen multiple hard drives are included, for example. Further examples ofstorage 612 may include a hard disk, floppy disk, Compact Disk Read OnlyMemory (CD-ROM), Compact Disk Recordable (CD-R), Compact DiskRewriteable (CD-RW), optical disk, magnetic media, magneto-opticalmedia, removable memory cards or disks, various types of DVD devices, atape device, a cassette device, or the like. The embodiments are notlimited in this context.

The computing device 600 may include a bandwidth determination component614 which may be implemented in software only, hardware only, orcombination thereof. In some embodiments, the bandwidth determinationcomponent 614 may be part of a master station and may determine abandwidth in a frequency band to communicate information to stations. Insome embodiments, the bandwidth may be 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, and 160(80+80) MHz and may be in the 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz frequency band. In someembodiments, the bandwidth used to communicate the information may bebased on a number of stations to communicate during a time period and/orthe available bandwidth in a frequency band. Other factors may also beused to determine the bandwidth to use for OFDMA communication.

The computing device 600 may include an OFDMA tone allocation component616 which may be implemented in software only, hardware only, orcombination thereof. The OFDMA tone allocation component 616 maydetermine an OFDMA tone allocation scheme based on a determinedbandwidth. For example, FIG. 2 illustrates an OFDMA tone allocationscheme for a 20 MHz bandwidth. Further, FIGS. 3A and 3B illustrate OFDMAtone allocation schemes for a 40 MHz bandwidth. Similarly, FIGS. 4A and4B illustrate OFDMA tone allocation schemes for an 80 MHz bandwidth.

The OFDMA tone allocation 616 may determine an OFDMA tone allocationscheme in a bandwidth, which may include allocating one or more resourceunits each comprising a plurality of tones to another device. Each ofthe resource units may be assigned to a user or a station forcommunicating information on by a master station, for example. Thus, astation may communicate on the assigned resource unit without concern ofinterfering with other stations also communicating during a same timeperiod. The size and number of resource units assigned to a user'sdevice may be based on a number of users wanting to communicate on thebandwidth at a same time, as previously discussed.

FIG. 7 illustrates an embodiment of an exemplary computing architecture700 suitable for implementing various embodiments as previouslydescribed. In one embodiment, the computing architecture 700 may includeor be implemented as part of system 105.

As used in this application, the terms “system” and “component” areintended to refer to a computer-related entity, either hardware, acombination of hardware and software, software, or software inexecution, examples of which are provided by the exemplary computingarchitecture 700. For example, a component can be, but is not limited tobeing, a process running on a processor, a processor, a hard disk drive,multiple storage drives (of optical and/or magnetic storage medium), anobject, an executable, a thread of execution, a program, and/or acomputer. By way of illustration, both an application running on aserver and the server can be a component. One or more components canreside within a process and/or thread of execution, and a component canbe localized on one computer and/or distributed between two or morecomputers. Further, components may be communicatively coupled to eachother by various types of communications media to coordinate operations.The coordination may involve the uni-directional or bi-directionalexchange of information. For instance, the components may communicateinformation in the form of signals communicated over the communicationsmedia. The information can be implemented as signals allocated tovarious signal lines. In such allocations, each message is a signal.Further embodiments, however, may alternatively employ data messages.Such data messages may be sent across various connections. Exemplaryconnections include parallel interfaces, serial interfaces, and businterfaces.

The computing architecture 700 includes various common computingelements, such as one or more processors, multi-core processors,co-processors, memory units, chipsets, controllers, peripherals,interfaces, oscillators, timing devices, video cards, audio cards,multimedia input/output (I/O) components, power supplies, and so forth.The embodiments, however, are not limited to implementation by thecomputing architecture 700.

As shown in FIG. 7, the computing architecture 700 includes a processingunit 704, a system memory 706 and a system bus 708. The processing unit704 can be any of various commercially available processors.

The system bus 708 provides an interface for system componentsincluding, but not limited to, the system memory 706 to the processingunit 704. The system bus 708 can be any of several types of busstructure that may further interconnect to a memory bus (with or withouta memory controller), a peripheral bus, and a local bus using any of avariety of commercially available bus architectures. Interface adaptersmay connect to the system bus 708 via slot architecture. Example slotarchitectures may include without limitation Accelerated Graphics Port(AGP), Card Bus, (Extended) Industry Standard Architecture ((E)ISA),Micro Channel Architecture (MCA), NuBus, Peripheral ComponentInterconnect (Extended) (PCI(X)), PCI Express, Personal Computer MemoryCard International Association (PCMCIA), and the like.

The computing architecture 700 may include or implement various articlesof manufacture. An article of manufacture may include acomputer-readable storage medium to store logic. Examples of acomputer-readable storage medium may include any tangible media capableof storing electronic data, including volatile memory or non-volatilememory, removable or non-removable memory, erasable or non-erasablememory, writeable or re-writeable memory, and so forth. Examples oflogic may include executable computer program instructions implementedusing any suitable type of code, such as source code, compiled code,interpreted code, executable code, static code, dynamic code,object-oriented code, visual code, and the like. Embodiments may also beat least partly implemented as instructions contained in or on anon-transitory computer-readable medium, which may be read and executedby one or more processors to enable performance of the operationsdescribed herein.

The system memory 706 may include various types of computer-readablestorage media in the form of one or more higher speed memory units, suchas read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM(DRAM), Double-Data-Rate DRAM (DDRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), staticRAM (SRAM), programmable ROM (PROM), erasable programmable ROM (EPROM),electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), flash memory, polymermemory such as ferroelectric polymer memory, ovonic memory, phase changeor ferroelectric memory, silicon-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon (SONOS)memory, magnetic or optical cards, an array of devices such as RedundantArray of Independent Disks (RAID) drives, solid state memory devices(e.g., USB memory, solid state drives (SSD) and any other type ofstorage media suitable for storing information. In the illustratedembodiment shown in FIG. 8, the system memory 706 can includenon-volatile memory 710 and/or volatile memory 712. A basic input/outputsystem (BIOS) can be stored in the non-volatile memory 710.

The computer 702 may include various types of computer-readable storagemedia in the form of one or more lower speed memory units, including aninternal (or external) hard disk drive (HDD) 714, a magnetic floppy diskdrive (FDD) 716 to read from or write to a removable magnetic disk 718,and an optical disk drive 720 to read from or write to a removableoptical disk 722 (e.g., a CD-ROM or DVD). The HDD 714, FDD 716 andoptical disk drive 720 can be connected to the system bus 708 by a HDDinterface 724, an FDD interface 726 and an optical drive interface 728,respectively. The HDD interface 724 for external drive implementationscan include at least one or both of Universal Serial Bus (USB) and IEEE1394 interface technologies.

The drives and associated computer-readable media provide volatileand/or nonvolatile storage of data, data structures, computer-executableinstructions, and so forth. For example, a number of program modules canbe stored in the drives and memory units 710, 712, including anoperating system 730, one or more application programs 732, otherprogram modules 734, and program data 736. In one embodiment, the one ormore application programs 732, other program modules 734, and programdata 736 can include, for example, the various applications and/orcomponents of the devices in FIGS. 1-6.

A user can enter commands and information into the computer 702 throughone or more wire/wireless input devices, for example, a keyboard 738 anda pointing device, such as a mouse 740. Other input devices may includemicrophones, infra-red (IR) remote controls, radio-frequency (RF) remotecontrols, game pads, stylus pens, card readers, dongles, finger printreaders, gloves, graphics tablets, joysticks, keyboards, retina readers,touch screens (e.g., capacitive, resistive, etc.), trackballs, trackpads, sensors, styluses, and the like. These and other input devices areoften connected to the processing unit 704 through an input deviceinterface 742 that is coupled to the system bus 708, but can beconnected by other interfaces such as a parallel port, IEEE 1394 serialport, a game port, a USB port, an IR interface, and so forth.

A monitor 744 or other type of display device is also connected to thesystem bus 708 via an interface, such as a video adaptor 746. Themonitor 744 may be internal or external to the computer 702. In additionto the monitor 744, a computer typically includes other peripheraloutput devices, such as speakers, printers, and so forth.

The computer 702 may operate in a networked environment using logicalconnections via wire and/or wireless communications to one or moreremote computers, such as a remote computer 748. The remote computer 748can be a workstation, a server computer, a router, a personal computer,portable computer, microprocessor-based entertainment appliance, a peerdevice or other common network node, and typically includes many or allof the elements described relative to the computer 702, although, forpurposes of brevity, only a memory/storage device 750 is illustrated.The logical connections depicted include wire/wireless connectivity to alocal area network (LAN) 752 and/or larger networks, for example, a widearea network (WAN) 754. Such LAN and WAN networking environments arecommonplace in offices and companies, and facilitate enterprise-widecomputer networks, such as intranets, all of which may connect to aglobal communications network, for example, the Internet.

When used in a LAN networking environment, the computer 702 is connectedto the LAN 752 through a wire and/or wireless communication networkinterface or adaptor 756. The adaptor 756 can facilitate wire and/orwireless communications to the LAN 752, which may also include awireless access point disposed thereon for communicating with thewireless functionality of the adaptor 756.

When used in a WAN networking environment, the computer 702 can includea modem 758, or is connected to a communications server on the WAN 754,or has other means for establishing communications over the WAN 754,such as by way of the Internet. The modem 758, which can be internal orexternal and a wire and/or wireless device, connects to the system bus708 via the input device interface 742. In a networked environment,program modules depicted relative to the computer 702, or portionsthereof, can be stored in the remote memory/storage device 750. It willbe appreciated that the network connections shown are exemplary andother means of establishing a communications link between the computerscan be used.

The computer 702 is operable to communicate with wire and wirelessdevices or entities using the IEEE 702 family of standards, such aswireless devices operatively disposed in wireless communication (e.g.,IEEE 702.11 over-the-air modulation techniques). This includes at leastWi-Fi (or Wireless Fidelity), WiMax, and BluetoothTM wirelesstechnologies, among others. Thus, the communication can be a predefinedstructure as with a conventional network or simply an ad hoccommunication between at least two devices. Wi-Fi networks use radiotechnologies called IEEE 702.11x (a, b, g, n, etc.) to provide secure,reliable, fast wireless connectivity. A Wi-Fi network can be used toconnect computers to each other, to the Internet, and to wire networks(which use IEEE 702.3-related media and functions).

The various elements of the system and devices as previously describedwith reference to FIGS. 1-7 may include various hardware elements,software elements, or a combination of both. Examples of hardwareelements may include devices, logic devices, components, processors,microprocessors, circuits, processors, circuit elements (e.g.,transistors, resistors, capacitors, inductors, and so forth), integratedcircuits, application specific integrated circuits (ASIC), programmablelogic devices (PLD), digital signal processors (DSP), field programmablegate array (FPGA), memory units, logic gates, registers, semiconductordevice, chips, microchips, chip sets, and so forth. Examples of softwareelements may include software components, programs, applications,computer programs, application programs, system programs, softwaredevelopment programs, machine programs, operating system software,middleware, firmware, software modules, routines, subroutines,functions, methods, procedures, software interfaces, application programinterfaces (API), instruction sets, computing code, computer code, codesegments, computer code segments, words, values, symbols, or anycombination thereof. However, determining whether an embodiment isimplemented using hardware elements and/or software elements may vary inaccordance with any number of factors, such as desired computationalrate, power levels, heat tolerances, processing cycle budget, input datarates, output data rates, memory resources, data bus speeds and otherdesign or performance constraints, as desired for a givenimplementation.

The detailed disclosure now turns to providing examples that pertain tofurther embodiments. Examples one through twenty-five (1-25) providedbelow are intended to be exemplary and non-limiting.

In a first example, a system, device, controller, or an apparatusincludes a transceiver, circuitry coupled to the transceiver. Thecircuitry to determine a bandwidth in a frequency band to communicateinformation to stations, determine an Orthogonal Frequency-DivisionMultiple Access (OFDMA) tone allocation scheme based on the bandwidth,the OFDMA tone allocation scheme to include one or more resource unitseach comprising a plurality of tones and each having a fixed location inthe bandwidth, and communicate, via the transceiver, information to thestations based on the OFDMA tone allocation scheme.

In a second example and in furtherance of the first example, thefrequency band comprising one of a 2.4 Gigahertz (GHz) band and a 5 GHzband, and the bandwidth comprising one of 20 megahertz (MHz) frequencyrange, a 40 MHz frequency range, an 80 MHz frequency range, and a 160MHz frequency range.

In a third example and in furtherance of any of the previous examples,the OFDMA tone allocation scheme to enable communicating informationusing at least one of a 256-Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM)modulation scheme, a 5/6 code rate, and binary convolutional coding(BCC).

In a fourth example and in furtherance of any of the previous examples,the OFDMA tone allocation scheme to include one or more pilot tones,guard tones, and null tones, and the pilot tones having a variablelocation in the bandwidth.

In a fifth example and in furtherance of any of the previous examples,the OFDMA tone allocation scheme to include a single 26-tone resourceunit straddling direct conversion (DC) tones in the bandwidth.

In a sixth example and in furtherance of any of the previous examples,the OFDMA tone allocation scheme to include resource units each havingan OFDMA tone allocation size comprising one of a 26-tone size, 52-tonesize, 108-tone size, 242-tone size, a 484-tone size, and a 996-tonesize.

In a seventh example and in furtherance of any of the previous examples,the OFDMA tone allocation scheme in a 20 MHz bandwidth to include atleast one of 26-tone resource units, 52-tone resource units, 108-toneresource units, and 242-tone resource units, and a 26-tone resource unitto straddle direct conversion (DC) tones in the 26-tone resource unitallocation, the 52-tone resource unit allocation, and the 108-toneresource unit allocation.

In an eighth example and in furtherance of any of the previous examples,the OFDMA tone allocation scheme in a 40 MHz bandwidth to include atleast one of 26-tone resource units, 52-tone resource units, 108-toneresource units, 242-tone resource units, and 484-tone resource units.

In a ninth example and in furtherance of any of the previous examples,the OFDMA tone allocation scheme to include a first 26-tone resourceunit located in a middle portion of tones below direct conversion (DC)tones and a second 26-tone resource unit in a second middle portion oftones above the DC tones, the first and second 26-tone resource units inthe 52-tone resource unit allocation and the 108-tone resource unitallocation.

In a tenth example and in furtherance of any of the previous examples,the OFDMA tone allocation scheme to include two 26-tone resource unitsto straddle direct conversion (DC) tones in the 52-tone resource unitallocation, and the 108-tone resource unit allocation.

In an eleventh example and in furtherance of any of the previousexamples, the OFDMA tone allocation scheme in an 80 MHz bandwidth toinclude at least one of 26-tone resource units, 52-tone resource units,108-tone resource units, 242-tone resource units, 484-tone resourceunits, and a 996 resource unit.

In a twelfth example and in furtherance of any of the previous examples,the OFDMA tone allocation scheme in the 80 MHz bandwidth to include a26-tone resource unit to straddle direct conversion (DC) tones in the26-tone resource unit allocations, the 52-tone resource unitallocations, the 108-tone resource unit allocations, the 242-toneresource unit allocations, and the 484-tone resource unit allocations.

In a thirteenth example and in furtherance of any of the previousexamples, the OFDMA tone allocation scheme to include a first 52-toneresource unit located in a middle portion of tones below DC tones and asecond 52-tone resource unit in a second middle portion of tones abovethe DC tones, the first and second 52-tone resource units in the 52-toneresource unit allocations and the 108-tone resource unit allocations.

In a fourteenth example and in furtherance of any of the previousexamples, the OFDMA tone allocation scheme to include a first 52-toneresource unit to a left side of the 26-tone resource unit and the DCtones and a second 52-tone resource unit to a ride side of the 26-toneresource unit and the DC tones, the first and second 52-tone resourceunits in the 52-tone resource unit allocations, and the 108-toneresource unit allocations.

In a fifteenth example and in furtherance of any of the previousexamples, an article of manufacture comprising a storage mediumcontaining instructions that when executed cause processing circuitry todetermine a bandwidth in a frequency band to communicate information tostations, determine an Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access(OFDMA) tone allocation scheme based on the bandwidth, the OFDMA toneallocation scheme to include one or more resource units each comprisinga plurality of tones and each having a fixed location in the bandwidth,and communicate information to the stations based on the OFDMA toneallocation scheme.

In a sixteenth example and in furtherance of any of the previousexamples, an article of manufacture comprising a storage mediumcontaining instructions that when executed cause processing circuitry tocommunicate and process information wherein the frequency bandcomprising one of a 2.4 Gigahertz (GHz) band and a 5 GHz band, and thebandwidth comprising one of 20 megahertz (MHz) frequency range, a 40 MHzfrequency range, an 80 MHz frequency range, and a 160 MHz frequencyrange.

In a seventeenth example and in furtherance of any of the previousexamples, an article of manufacture comprising a storage mediumcontaining instructions that when executed cause processing circuitry todetermine and communicate using the OFDMA tone allocation scheme toenable communicating information using at least one of a 256-QuadratureAmplitude Modulation (QAM) modulation scheme, a 5/6 code rate, andbinary convolutional coding (BCC).

In an eighteenth example and in furtherance of any of the previousexamples, an article of manufacture comprising a storage mediumcontaining instructions that when executed cause processing circuitry todetermine and communicate using the OFDMA tone allocation scheme toinclude one or more pilot tones, guard tones, and null tones, the pilottones having a variable location in the bandwidth.

In a nineteenth example and in furtherance of any of the previousexamples, an article of manufacture comprising a storage mediumcontaining instructions that when executed cause processing circuitry todetermine and communicate using the OFDMA tone allocation scheme toinclude a single 26-tone resource unit straddling direct conversion (DC)tones in the bandwidth.

In a twentieth example and in furtherance of any of the previousexamples, an article of manufacture comprising a storage mediumcontaining instructions that when executed cause processing circuitry todetermine and communicate the OFDMA tone allocation scheme to includeresource units each having an OFDMA tone allocation size comprising oneof a 26-tone size, 52-tone size, 108-tone size, 242-tone size, a484-tone size, and a 996-tone size.

In a twenty-first example and in furtherance of any of the previousexamples, a computer-implemented may include determining, by circuitry,a bandwidth in a frequency band to communicate information to stations,determining, by the circuitry, an Orthogonal Frequency-Division MultipleAccess (OFDMA) tone allocation scheme based on the bandwidth, the OFDMAtone allocation scheme to include one or more resource units eachcomprising a plurality of tones and each having a fixed location in thebandwidth, communicating, by the circuitry, information to the stationsbased on the OFDMA tone allocation scheme.

In a twenty-second example and in furtherance of any of the previousexamples, the computer implemented method may include the frequency bandcomprising one of a 2.4 Gigahertz (GHz) band and a 5 GHz band, and thebandwidth comprising one of 20 megahertz (MHz) frequency range, a 40 MHzfrequency range, an 80 MHz frequency range, and a 160 MHz frequencyrange.

In a twenty-third example and in furtherance of any of the previousexamples, the computer implemented method may include the OFDMA toneallocation scheme to enable communicating information using at least oneof a 256-Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) modulation scheme, a 5/6code rate, and binary convolutional coding (BCC).

In a twenty-fourth example and in furtherance of any of the previousexamples, the computer implemented method may include the OFDMA toneallocation scheme to include one or more pilot tones, guard tones, andnull tones, and the pilot tones having a variable location in thebandwidth.

In a twenty-fifth example and in furtherance of any of the previousexamples, the computer implemented method may include the OFDMA toneallocation scheme to include resource units each having an OFDMA toneallocation size comprising one of a 26-tone size, 52-tone size, 108-tonesize, 242-tone size, a 484-tone size, and a 996-tone size.

Some embodiments may be described using the expression “one embodiment”or “an embodiment” along with their derivatives. These terms mean that aparticular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connectionwith the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment. Theappearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” in various places in thespecification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment.Further, some embodiments may be described using the expression“coupled” and “connected” along with their derivatives. These terms arenot necessarily intended as synonyms for each other. For example, someembodiments may be described using the terms “connected” and/or“coupled” to indicate that two or more elements are in direct physicalor electrical contact with each other. The term “coupled,” however, mayalso mean that two or more elements are not in direct contact with eachother, but yet still co-operate or interact with each other.

It is emphasized that the Abstract of the Disclosure is provided toallow a reader to quickly ascertain the nature of the technicaldisclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not beused to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. Inaddition, in the foregoing Detailed Description, it can be seen thatvarious features are grouped together in a single embodiment for thepurpose of streamlining the disclosure. This method of disclosure is notto be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the claimedembodiments require more features than are expressly recited in eachclaim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive subject matterlies in less than all features of a single disclosed embodiment. Thusthe following claims are hereby incorporated into the DetailedDescription, with each claim standing on its own as a separateembodiment. In the appended claims, the terms “including” and “in which”are used as the plain-English equivalents of the respective terms“including” and “wherein,” respectively. Moreover, the terms “first,”“second,” “third,” and so forth, are used merely as labels, and are notintended to impose numerical requirements on their objects.

What has been described above includes examples of the disclosedarchitecture. It is, of course, not possible to describe everyconceivable combination of components and/or methodologies, but one ofordinary skill in the art may recognize that many further combinationsand permutations are possible. Accordingly, the novel architecture isintended to embrace all such alterations, modifications and variationsthat fall within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. An apparatus, comprising: a transceiver;circuitry coupled to the transceiver, the circuitry to: determine abandwidth in a frequency band to communicate information to stations,determine an Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) toneallocation scheme based on the bandwidth, the OFDMA tone allocationscheme to include one or more resource units each comprising a pluralityof tones and each having a fixed location in the bandwidth, andcommunicate, via the transceiver, information to the stations based onthe OFDMA tone allocation scheme.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1, thefrequency band comprising one of a 2.4 Gigahertz (GHz) band and a 5 GHzband, and the bandwidth comprising one of 20 megahertz (MHz) frequencyrange, a 40 MHz frequency range, an 80 MHz frequency range, and a 160MHz frequency range.
 3. The apparatus of claim 1, the OFDMA toneallocation scheme to enable communicating information using at least oneof a 256-Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) modulation scheme, a 5/6code rate, and binary convolutional coding (BCC).
 4. The apparatus ofclaim 1, the OFDMA tone allocation scheme to include one or more pilottones, guard tones, and null tones, and the pilot tones having avariable location in the bandwidth.
 5. The apparatus of claim 1, theOFDMA tone allocation scheme to include a single 26-tone resource unitstraddling direct conversion (DC) tones in the bandwidth.
 6. Theapparatus of claim 1, the OFDMA tone allocation scheme to includeresource units each having an OFDMA tone allocation size comprising oneof a 26-tone size, 52-tone size, 108-tone size, 242-tone size, a484-tone size, and a 996-tone size.
 7. The apparatus of claim 1, theOFDMA tone allocation scheme in a 20 MHz bandwidth to include at leastone of 26-tone resource units, 52-tone resource units, 108-tone resourceunits, and 242-tone resource units, and a 26-tone resource unit tostraddle direct conversion (DC) tones in the 26-tone resource unitallocation, the 52-tone resource unit allocation, and the 108-toneresource unit allocation.
 8. The apparatus of claim 1, the OFDMA toneallocation scheme in a 40 MHz bandwidth to include at least one of26-tone resource units, 52-tone resource units, 108-tone resource units,242-tone resource units, and 484-tone resource units.
 9. The apparatusof claim 8, the OFDMA tone allocation scheme to include a first 26-toneresource unit located in a middle portion of tones below directconversion (DC) tones and a second 26-tone resource unit in a secondmiddle portion of tones above the DC tones, the first and second 26-toneresource units in the 52-tone resource unit allocation and the 108-toneresource unit allocation.
 10. The apparatus of claim 8, the OFDMA toneallocation scheme to include two 26-tone resource units to straddledirect conversion (DC) tones in the 52-tone resource unit allocation,and the 108-tone resource unit allocation.
 11. The apparatus of claim 1,the OFDMA tone allocation scheme in an 80 MHz bandwidth to include atleast one of 26-tone resource units, 52-tone resource units, 108-toneresource units, 242-tone resource units, 484-tone resource units, and a996 resource unit.
 12. The apparatus of claim 11, the OFDMA toneallocation scheme in the 80 MHz bandwidth to include a 26-tone resourceunit to straddle direct conversion (DC) tones in the 26-tone resourceunit allocations, the 52-tone resource unit allocations, the 108-toneresource unit allocations, the 242-tone resource unit allocations, andthe 484-tone resource unit allocations.
 13. The apparatus of claim 12,the OFDMA tone allocation scheme to include a first 52-tone resourceunit located in a middle portion of tones below DC tones and a second52-tone resource unit in a second middle portion of tones above the DCtones, the first and second 52-tone resource units in the 52-toneresource unit allocations and the 108-tone resource unit allocations.14. The apparatus of claim 12, the OFDMA tone allocation scheme toinclude a first 52-tone resource unit to a left side of the 26-toneresource unit and the DC tones and a second 52-tone resource unit to aride side of the 26-tone resource unit and the DC tones, the first andsecond 52-tone resource units in the 52-tone resource unit allocations,and the 108-tone resource unit allocations.
 15. At least onenon-transitory storage medium containing instructions that when executedcause processing circuitry to: determine a bandwidth in a frequency bandto communicate information to stations; determine an OrthogonalFrequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) tone allocation scheme basedon the bandwidth, the OFDMA tone allocation scheme to include one ormore resource units each comprising a plurality of tones and each havinga fixed location in the bandwidth; and communicate information to thestations based on the OFDMA tone allocation scheme.
 16. The at least onenon-transitory storage medium of claim 15, the frequency band comprisingone of a 2.4 Gigahertz (GHz) band and a 5 GHz band, and the bandwidthcomprising one of 20 megahertz (MHz) frequency range, a 40 MHz frequencyrange, an 80 MHz frequency range, and a 160 MHz frequency range.
 17. Theat least one non-transitory storage medium of claim 15, the OFDMA toneallocation scheme to enable communicating information using at least oneof a 256-Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) modulation scheme, a 5/6code rate, and binary convolutional coding (BCC).
 18. The at least onenon-transitory storage medium of claim 15, the OFDMA tone allocationscheme to include one or more pilot tones, guard tones, and null tones,the pilot tones having a variable location in the bandwidth.
 19. The atleast one non-transitory storage medium of claim 15, the OFDMA toneallocation scheme to include a single 26-tone resource unit straddlingdirect conversion (DC) tones in the bandwidth.
 20. The at least onenon-transitory storage medium of claim 15, the OFDMA tone allocationscheme to include resource units each having an OFDMA tone allocationsize comprising one of a 26-tone size, 52-tone size, 108-tone size,242-tone size, a 484-tone size, and a 996-tone size.
 21. A computerimplemented method, comprising: determining, by circuitry, a bandwidthin a frequency band to communicate information to stations; determining,by the circuitry, an Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access(OFDMA) tone allocation scheme based on the bandwidth, the OFDMA toneallocation scheme to include one or more resource units each comprisinga plurality of tones and each having a fixed location in the bandwidth;and communicating, by the circuitry, information to the stations basedon the OFDMA tone allocation scheme.
 22. The computer implemented methodof claim 21, the frequency band comprising one of a 2.4 Gigahertz (GHz)band and a 5 GHz band, and the bandwidth comprising one of 20 megahertz(MHz) frequency range, a 40 MHz frequency range, an 80 MHz frequencyrange, and a 160 MHz frequency range.
 23. The computer implementedmethod of claim 21, the OFDMA tone allocation scheme to enablecommunicating information using at least one of a 256-QuadratureAmplitude Modulation (QAM) modulation scheme, a 5/6 code rate, andbinary convolutional coding (BCC).
 24. The computer implemented methodof claim 21, the OFDMA tone allocation scheme to include one or morepilot tones, guard tones, and null tones, and the pilot tones having avariable location in the bandwidth.
 25. The computer implemented methodof claim 21, the OFDMA tone allocation scheme to include resource unitseach having an OFDMA tone allocation size comprising one of a 26-tonesize, 52-tone size, 108-tone size, 242-tone size, a 484-tone size, and a996-tone size.
 26. A system, comprising: a transceiver; a networkadaptor; circuitry coupled to the transceiver and the network adaptor,the circuitry to: determine a bandwidth in a frequency band tocommunicate information to stations, determine an OrthogonalFrequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) tone allocation scheme basedon the bandwidth, the OFDMA tone allocation scheme to include one ormore resource units each comprising a plurality of tones and each havinga fixed location in the bandwidth, and communicate, via the networkadaptor, information to the stations based on the OFDMA tone allocationscheme.